Day 7 of NaNoWriMo and I am enjoying writing a new story. This one has the chain saw carver in it, who was the subject of an earlier post. Anyone who knows me is aware that I am a planner and very organised. When writing a first draft, however, I tend to be a panster not a planner and enjoy this unaccustomed freedom.

I am a little worried that I am becoming a serial first draft writer though. After this one I need to settle down to edit the last few. Does anyone else have this problem?

I went to a talk on Saturday by Sue Johnson about the two books she has had published this year and her road to publication. Fable’s Fortune is doing well and her latest “how to” book Creative Alchemy is very useful and a wonderfully tactile small size.

I hear you! My first ms was way too short so I stuck it in a drawer. My second ended up being a total mess – so I stuck it in a drawer. I'm currently trying to edit the third whilst doing NaNo as well. I think I'm just not very good at editing 🙂

Sarah – I think editing is a whole other set of skills. I keep telling myself that when I get one book published at least I have a few others which just need a polish. Lol. Good luck with your Nano. Mx

I do that a lot too. I think part of the problem is that I'm not too sure how to edit. Sure, I'll take it to my writers group and make changes based on that, but that usually results in small edits. Big huge large things I'm not sure how to do, nor always have the motivation XD I think that would be one of the benefits of having an agent.